Dalla Costa: London Knights tip hand for rebuild, but still have potential for this year

The London Knights have taken the first step in what they hope will be a quick rebuilding of their hockey team.

For weeks there has been speculation on whether the perennial contender for the Ontario Hockey League title was going to acquire assets for another run at a championship or deal assets to prepare for a longer, more successful run in the future.

The trading of Cliff Pu to the Kingston Frontenacs may be the first move by the Knights in announcing they will be more comfortable betting on the future than putting in all their chips for a run this year.

The Knights acquired something they desperately needed going forward — a young forward with an offensive upside — and grabbed a couple of high draft choices for future years.

The Frontenacs continue to make big trades, announcing to one and all they believe they are good enough to win an OHL title.

The Knights should be pleased with this deal. It will also make most other OHL teams happy, especially those going all in for a championship.

It’s difficult for any team to admit some of the players they brought on board simply aren’t going to get it done now or in the next few years. Every team misses, but it’s a tough bit of crow to chew on when you have a reputation for finding good players. No matter how long you wait, a carriage horse is never going to win the Kentucky Derby.

No team wants to admit to bad drafting. You never want to admit to fans that they will have to wait until next year or perhaps the year after for a championship run. It happens to most junior teams eventually, but no junior team has to explain that to 9,000 fans along with the thousands of others that follow the team, as the Knights do.

The Knights would have presented a problem for any team in the playoffs if they had opted to get better now. Winning would have still been a long shot, but it wouldn’t be the first time an average Knights team made a lot of noise in the playoffs.

But it’s good news because the Knights have several players who can boost a team from a contender to the top of the heap. And other similar players now appear to be available from other teams.

So the Knights have stated their intentions, but that doesn’t lessen the speculation or suspense going forward.

Who will be traded next, if anyone? If there’s a possibility they can make another deal, get some good stuff back and still win a round in the playoffs, then that’s what the Knights will do.

Max Jones is probably the most obvious choice to go after Pu. He can fill a major role for any team and because he’s in his final year, he’d be a classic rental player for a team that trades for him.

But what do the Knights do with Robert Thomas? What, trade your best player? That’s the decision facing the Knights when Thomas returns from the world junior tournament.

He has one year of junior hockey remaining but considering he almost made the St. Louis Blues roster as an 18-year-old, what are the odds of him coming back for his final year of junior hockey? Probably not very good.

What kind of return can the Knights get for that kind of player? It may be a lot or a little depending on how much risk their trading partner wants to take.

So while the Knights have partially answered the question about whether they’ll be buyers or sellers, there may be a lot more action the closer the OHL trade deadline gets.

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